Media MonsterSoccer

Um, Okay: Nigerian Women’s Soccer Coach Tries To Rid National Team Of Homosexuality

In Africa, soccer is broadly viewed as a means of empowering women. FIFA itself cites as part of its mission a desire to use the game in “overcoming social and cultural obstacles for women with the ultimate aim of improving women’s standing in society.”

However, given the circumstances surrounding Nigeria’s renowned women’s national soccer team — the Super Falcons — the sport seems to be doing anything but.

Prior to being hired as the squad’s first female coach in 2009, Eucharia Uche stated at a seminar that she was troubled by the presence of lesbians on the team. Since then, she has made a conscious effort to remove all traces of homosexual behavior from the club by way of religion.

In Uche’s own words, “[Lesbianism] is not a physical battle; we need divine intervention in order to control and curb it.”

With that sentiment in mind, she has resorted to bringing in Pentecostal ministers to pray with and counsel her players on a routine basis. Uche maintains that the tactic has worked and the “dirty issue” remains “a thing of the past.”

Equally alarming, however, is the rationale that spurred Uche’s attempted reformation of the Nigeria Super Falcons in the first place.

Uche said she had never witnessed her own players participating in homosexual activity. Instead, she said that she had relied on rumors, speculation and news media accounts to form her belief that lesbian behavior had been common in the Nigerian team.

As it happens, the team’s alleged wrongdoing isn’t even rooted in fact or direct observation, just idle gossip and hearsay.

As disconcerting and immoral as their plight may be, at the end of the day, the women of the Nigeria Super Falcons are at least allowed on the field, provided they keep mum on the subject of homosexuality. This is more than can be said for those female soccer players who do elect to speak out on the controversial topic.

In 2008, 31-year-old star midfielder and lesbian activist Eudy Simelane was murdered in South Africa in what many deemed a hate crime. According to The New York Times, her death “became the focus of a campaign to draw attention to violence against gays and lesbians.”

In the same country, an openly lesbian team of black players called the Chosen Few originated in Johannseburg. Participation, however, is not without risk.

A player by the name of Tumi Mkhuma was raped and left pregnant in an attack; after losing the baby, she said she twice tried to kill herself and to this day sometimes wishes she was dead.

What was once seen as a small victory for female empowerment and inclusivity in a continent marred by social injustice, has now been twisted into a cruel venue for discrimination. And like many instances of discrimination — in Africa and elsewhere — it often goes unreported.

While gender discrimination in soccer is technically prohibited and carries with it suspensions or expulsions, FIFA maintains it cannot comment on the Nigeria case due to the fact that it has received no official information or complaints.

Such silence is not surprising when considered in conjunction with what Nigeria’s captain and goalkeeper, Precious Dede, had to say when asked about her coach’s position:

“I don’t know anything about it. Anything she tells you is the fact.”

So much for empowerment.